Media websites: who visits what?

Thursday, November 28th, 2013 - Roy Morgan Research

Launched by CEO Michele Levine recently, Roy Morgan Research’s latest State of the Nation report contains a spotlight on Media and the impact of new technologies, investigating just how Australians are connecting with new and traditional media amid an ever-changing range of choices.

Online communities and messaging sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+ continue to be overwhelmingly popular, visited by three quarters of Australians aged 14+ in an average four-week period. Visitation to these sites has crept up slightly over the last year, and their dominance over news, entertainment, sport and weather sites remains unassailable.

Second in popularity after social, news websites experienced a moderate rise in visitation since 2012 from 49.5% to 51.6%, while entertainment (celebrity gossip, music, movies etc), weather and sport websites saw slight dips in visitation.

Media website trends

Intriguingly, visitation to online classifieds sites such as Trading Post and Gumtree rose from 5.5% to 7.9% over the last year; but overall, it appears that visitation to most kinds of media websites has stabilised, evidence that the internet is now fully integrated into Australians’ lives.

The Helix perspective

It may come as no surprise that tech-savvy, switched-on Metrotechs are the Helix Community most likely to visit most types of media website: particularly social networking sites, business, news and entertainment.

Most likely to visit weather sites, however, are busy, family-focused Aussie Achievers (checking the outlook before Junior’s soccer match, perhaps?), while members of the cash-strapped Battlers community are likeliest to seek out a bargain on classifieds websites.

“After years of growth, visitation to media websites has stabilised over the last few years as the internet has become an integral part of Australian daily life. Now, the interest lies in who’s accessing which kinds of websites, and how.

“Our data confirms that certain segments of the population are far more likely than others to visit particular types of website. This kind of knowledge is invaluable for marketers considering online advertising and content creators keen to tailor their output to a specific target audience.

“Along with the Helix Communities mentioned above, this is highlighted when we consider website visitation by Value Segments*. Upwardly-mobile and information-hungry, Socially Aware Australians are 58% more likely than the national average to visit business websites, while image-conscious Young Optimism is 23% more likely to visit magazine websites.”

*Devised by Michele Levine of Roy Morgan Research and Colin Benjamin of The Horizons Network.

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Roy Morgan Research

Roy Morgan Research is Australia's best known and longest established market research and public opinion survey company. Roy Morgan Single Source is thorough, accurate, and provides comprehensive, directly applicable information about current and future customers. It is unique in that it directs all the questions to each individual from a base survey sample of around 55,000 interviews in Australia and 15,000 interviews in New Zealand annually - the largest Single Source databases in the world. The questions asked relate to lifestyle and attitudes, media consumption habits (including TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, cinema, catalogues, pay TV and the Internet), brand and product usage, purchase intentions, retail visitations, service provider preferences, financial information and recreation and leisure activities. This lead product is supported by a nationally networked, consultancy-orientated market research capability.Samantha Wilson P: (03) 9224 5268W:www.roymorgan.com